14Thank you to everyone who reviewed!
This is from Dis' point of view.
There is bits of implied violence, but no actual violence. If anyone wants to skip this chapter, feel free, tell me and I'll put a summary up next chapter.
Chapter 4
Dis' point of view
"Get a move on! We haven't got all day!" One of the men shouted. Another stood by his side, whip in hand, ready if any of them showed signs of lagging.
Dis had been taken by slavers. They had travelled for weeks until they had reached the slave camp. Dis had tried to escape at every opportunity, but every time she had been caught. After her fifth failed escape attempt, they decided that it would be easier to keep her drugged for the rest of the journey. As a result, she had no idea of where she was. They were only saw inside the forges and the cramped rooms where they slept.
Tall, iron gates stood menacingly all around, blocking any little glimpse of the outside world, any landmarks that could give away their position. Escape was futile. Everywhere was guarded and all the men were heavily armed. Daggers, swords, bows. The dwarrow were kept fit enough for work, but none of them were in a state to rebel. Not that that stopped them trying.
Some of the dwarrow had instantly recognised her for who she was. A princess of the line of Durin. They had rioted, but failed to achieve anything except get lots of them injured. A few were killed. Luckily the slavers hadn't realised that the fuss was over her, so they let her didn't punish her, or put her in solitary confinement. After the initial fuss, she told everyone not to bother and treat her the same as everyone else. For that was what she was there. Just another average dwarf.
The men knew that dwarves were the best at forging items, and the easiest to enslave. Elves are better fighters than men, as are dwarves, however, dwarves are much shorter, so easier to house and tower over, which in the men's minds equalled intimidation. Every day, they were made to work in awful conditions forging all sorts of items. They forged mostly weapons, but sometimes they were given instructions to make all kinds of machinery. Machines of war. If anyone refused to do anything, or worse, tried to use one of the newly forged weapons, then they would be publicly whipped, as an example.
There were a few dwarrowdams there as well, but because all adult dwarves have facial hair, none of the men could tell the difference. The dwarrowdams had managed to get all sleep in the same room, so there wasn't any issues, thankfully. There were no pregnant dwarrowdams, but there were some children. The men tolerated the children, if they worked and stayed out of the way. Children learned very quickly there.
Day in and day out they worked. Forges aren't the safest places to work, so there were accidents. If the injured dwarrow could still work, then they were forced to. If they couldn't then something else was found for them to do. If some became too old or ill to work then…then they were never seen again. Dis didn't know exactly where they went, but she often heard goblin voices, so she had an idea of what happened to the poor souls. She knew she would rather die than be a captive of the goblins.
Dis often thought of her family. She knew that she would probably never see them again, but that didn't stop her thinking of them. She wondered if they thought of her, and whether they wondered what happened to her. She hoped that they believed that she died. It would be kinder than them hoping for the rest of their lives that she would return. The other dwarves talked about their families all the time. It was the only bright spot in their lives. That their loved ones weren't there with them, suffering alongside them, but free.
Please review! I love hearing what you guys think!
I don't know when I will get to update as the summer holidays have ended and I'm back at school. I will probably (try) to update once a week, maybe more, maybe less.
:)